Compose two styles
Rather than blending two styles into a middle, this assigns them roles: one carries the structure, the other appears as an accent. Where the two fight, it says so before you start.
How to divide the work
- Composition
- Follow Dada: Keep one reading path; rotate and sever the rest
- Type
- Set in Dada's manner (Collide weights, directions and cases in one plane), and let Lettrism's lettering (Invented alphabets, asemic glyphs and salvaged type mixed without hierarchy) appear only where you want the eye to catch.
- Material
- Ground in Dada's material (Letterpress black, red, off-white; bind the accidents with repetition); bring in exactly one thing from Lettrism (Ink, paint and scratched film or paper—letters applied as physical marks).
- Colour
- Build on #efe6d0, #d7362f, #161513 and admit one accent from #e9e6dd, #67635d, #171615.
Where they fight
These two are already listed as related, so the join should come easily.
Caution
- Dada Not decorative messiness. Decide which authority or custom you are objecting to.
- Lettrism Laying out unreadable letters as decoration alone drops the claim and leaves pattern. One legible word left in the field reinstates the meaning the work exists to suspend.
Image prompt
An original image that takes its structure from Dada (Style, 1916–1920s) and its accent from Lettrism (Style, 1946–1970s). Structural cues: Rotated type; Fragments of sound; Collisions of scale; Unbalanced margins. Accent cues, used sparingly: Surfaces paved with unreadable characters; Handwriting mixed with type; Hypergraphy of proliferating signs; Letters handled as painterly material. Composition: Keep one reading path; rotate and sever the rest. Type and lettering: Collide weights, directions and cases in one plane. Let one material quality come from the second style: Ink, paint and scratched film or paper—letters applied as physical marks. Mood: Rebellion, Play, Exhilaration, Technology. Color: build on #efe6d0, #d7362f, #161513 with a single accent drawn from #e9e6dd, #67635d, #171615. Constraints: do not imitate, reference or name any specific artist, studio, brand, character or copyrighted work. Produce an original composition in the general period languages described above.
Related entries
- Dada 1916–1920s / Style / Avant-garde
Deliberately dislocates meaning and order, making authority itself the material of the joke.
- Lettrism 1946–1970s / Style / Experimental Typography
A Paris-born movement that freed the letter from its duty of carrying meaning, treating sound and shape themselves as the material of the work. From surfaces paved with unreadable characters, to hypergraphy's proliferating signs, to marks scratched directly into film stock, it expanded the experiment of handling letters as physical matter.
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